Washington College 2011 Lacrosse Season Preview

The top short-stick defensive midfielders include junior Michael Pancottine (Bellevue, WA/Issaquah) (21 ground balls, nine caused turnovers, two assists), senior Nash Evans-Hodgson (Maple Grove, MN/Maple Grove) (12 ground balls, one goal), and freshman Eric Crosby (Annapolis, MD/St. Mary's). Three of the team's four face-off men from last season return in senior Zechariah Rogers (Bear, DE/Middletown), junior Stephen Evans (West Chester, PA/Henderson), and Hager. Lundquist may also see time facing off this season.

At the start of preseason, there was a healthy three-man competition in goal. Junior Peter Stewart (Annapolis, MD/St. Mary's) posted a .557 percentage in four starts before his 2010 campaign was cut short by injury, while sophomore Matt Miller (Baldwin, MD/Calvert Hall) made 10 starts, posted a .556 save percentage, and led the team in ground balls with 34. Freshman Ted DiSalvo (Boca Raton, FL/Spanish River) is competing with both of those returning netminders for the starting job.

Shirk, who came to Washington after four years as the head coach at Division I VMI, brought in an experienced staff of assistants. Andrew Delaney has spent time as an assistant coach at both Washington and Lee and Limestone, JL Reppert is a former Harvard assistant with a number of successful high school stops on his resume, and Ian Shure is a veteran of the Baltimore-area high-school coaching scene.

The Shoremen will open the 2011 season February 26th, at 2010 Landmark Conference Champion Goucher College, the first of six 2010 NCAA Division III Tournament participants they will face this season. The non-conference schedule also includes early-season home games against long-time rival Washington and Lee, York (PA), and Wesley, a trip to 2010 Colonial States Athletic Conference Champion and NCAA Division III Tournament participant Cabrini, and, of course, the annual "War on the Shore" for the Charles B. Clark Cup against 2010 NCAA Division III runner-up Salisbury, which will be played in Chestertown May 7th.

With such a daunting schedule, the Shoremen will be in the historically unusual position of underdogs heading into the season, but that's not something Shirk or his team is concerned about.

"We're already headed in the right direction off the field and with work ethic. We don't talk about winning games - we talk about putting in the work and preparing for game days. We're trying to create that mentality of focusing on preparation so that when game days come, we're confident that we have a great chance to win."